


From Darkness to Light

by blue_eyesgirl_fic



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Canon - Manga, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 07:49:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2500208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue_eyesgirl_fic/pseuds/blue_eyesgirl_fic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’d spent an awful long time sleeping, first in stone and then in paper, having woken many a time before he truly became aware.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Darkness to Light

**Author's Note:**

  * For [taichara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/taichara/gifts).



> Beta: magic-in-flames  
> Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and its characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi  
> Author’s Notes: I'm so glad to have matched with you and been given the opportunity to write this fic! I love the Black Magician and Mahaad and I hope you enjoy this :D

His world had been nothing but silence and sleep for several millennia. He wasn’t awake and he didn’t have an idea as to what had happened, how much time had really passed or that his soul had somehow been moved from stone to card.

To one particular piece of card. 

The feeling of the person who owned that card and kept him safe in his deck had been familiar but it hadn’t been enough to wake him. Not enough to bring him to life. 

It wasn’t until the spirit of the Puzzle first called him that he began to remember things from so long ago and began remembering the present each time he awoke.

 

That first battle the Black Magician took form on the battlefield and slayed Judge Man. Before this point there had been nothing but darkness, and he didn’t remember anything other than that, but he still felt surprise that the first face he saw was a boy with brown hair and blue eyes. Didn’t he know him? That twisted glee on his face was so familiar but equally wrong. The dragon attacking him was strangely familiar too, not to mention the sensation of being destroyed by that beast of a dragon.

Hadn’t this happened before? 

 

He woke once more, not sure how much time might have passed, but he was soon distracted by the shadows swirling around them, the menacing darkness just waiting for someone to lose. 

He silently vowed to do his best for his master and leapt into action, taking out one of the opponent’s monsters. As the dust settled, he had a chance to take in the appearance of his duelist’s opponent. The man himself sparked no sense of familiarity within the Magician but there was something of his aura, that was rolling off in waves, that was so familiar. Every time he tried to grab at that feeling, it just seemed to slip through his fingers like the shadows around them. 

Not that as a monster in a game of Magic and Wizards you had much time to think! The Magician quickly took out a dragon this time as instructed before he came up against and attempted to destroy Illusionist Faceless Mage.

As soon as his attack collided his mind went blank, just like when he was destroyed in battle and his card was sent to the Graveyard or he was returned to the deck but this time, this time he could see everything that was going on. 

His body went against his will, defending Illusionist Faceless Mage and attacking the Celtic Guardian. The Magician felt so devastated; he knew there was nothing he could’ve done, that these were the rules of the game. But he hated to betray his master. It was just so fundamentally against his will. 

Against his heart. 

The duel faded before he could find out why their opponent felt familiar and yet not. By the end of the tournament his master was about to embark on, he would find out and see the Millennium Eye for himself; it would start to trigger a whole load of memories that made the Magician soon realise that there was a reason for his high level of sentience.

 

Black Magician had only seen play at one duel of the tournament before he was on the field once more. In fact, the duel had barely even begun when he was next summoned. As he graced the field he thought that for a second time they were fighting the brown haired boy. Even though the Magician had only been on the field for a couple of turns last time, he had felt the deep-set rivalry between his master and their opponent. However, it was soon obvious that what he had thought to be his master’s rival was actually some kind of doll. It was creepy and it was distressing his master and the Black Magician soon understood why.

The doll was nothing but a mockery. Oh it had the right cards and that dragon soon found its way onto the field but the doll or perhaps its master, he couldn’t tell if the doll was being controlled or was an actual animate object, was nothing but a fake. 

The Blue-Eyes White Dragon was summoned to the field and his master began to fret. There was no true fear, not of the dragon but a different kind of fear. Was this really Kaiba’s revenge? The Black Magician had more time to watch the dragon this time, to try and grab on to this familiarity that was repeating itself over and over again. 

This guilt that his master was feeling, the grudge rolling off of the doll, off this boy with brown hair. It was maddeningly familiar and as he moved aside, avoiding the attack of the dragon as it hit his fellow monster the world shifted for a moment. 

There was no box, his master and Kaiba were no longer giant in comparison to his tiny form and stale, hot air hung between them. There was sand and pale, stone buildings and a hollow look in those blue eyes. A cruel smirk twisted on the boy’s face.

“I play Magical Silk Hats on Black Magician!” The Magician was suddenly back in the duel, pulled from whatever that vision had been, and hidden by his Magical Silk Hats.

The field rumbled as one was destroyed and a moment later there was a roar of fury as a second was destroyed; springing his master’s trap. The Magician leapt from his hiding place and attacked the weakened dragon as instructed. 

The dust had barely cleared before he found himself destroyed by a second dragon and he slipped back into darkness.

 

In the usual darkness between duels, the Magician, for once, found himself dreaming. He felt the hot, heavy air as he had in that vision and he saw that boy again. However, you couldn’t see his hair beneath the hat he wore, not to mention the robes were very different to the white clothes he’d worn before. And somehow this one looked older.

But the eyes were still that piercing blue and the arrogance was just the same. 

“Watch how you speak to our Great Pharaoh, my fellow Priest.” The words slipped out of his own mouth but he had little time to be surprised before the other turned to him with a small smirk. 

He bowed, though it didn’t seem all sincere and neither was the apology he gave a moment later. “My apologies, Mahaad. I will in future.” 

The other Priest swept past him and the dream faded away, melding into reality as he was thrust onto the field once more. 

The Magician killed the Swordstalker as ordered, finally having time to take stock of the situation. He was bigger than before, not some pint sized figure on a table but his proper height and proportions.

Cards stood upright in the air hiding both his master and his opponent, who… well of course it was that boy once more. Would they ever not fight him?

He continued to face Kaiba’s tricks and powerful monsters, the Magician almost on edge waiting for his own rival to appear. It was unusual for him to go this long without facing her but his master soon revealed the dragon to be in the boy’s hand.

The Magician was almost disappointed to not face his rival and he hoped he would survive long enough to battle her. 

His master soon destroyed his opponent’s trick, the Magician springing from his box, smirking at the young man and unable to resist wagging his finger in silent, playful admonishment.

Unfortunately, he didn’t last long enough to fight her, or rather her new fused form, and he didn’t see what he would consider on the surface to be an underhanded trick by Kaiba. 

Even though he slept, he still felt his littlest master’s anguish at the end of the duel. He had finally faced a loss. A terrifying loss at that.

But maybe the Spirit of the Puzzle would finally learn something.

 

Mahaad, he assumed that was his true name, continued to help his master through the quarter finals and to the duel with Pegasus. It didn’t have the same atmosphere as when they faced Kaiba – and he knew what had happened to him, had felt both his masters’ grief and the upset roar of his own rival – but the duel was just as intense.

Once more he was his tiny self and everything was on the line. Though he couldn’t help but feel proud that his masters’ had learnt to work together; their mind shuffle was proving to be a stroke of genius.

He listened to the explanation of where the game came from, where _he_ came from. But the duel soon became a Game of Darkness and it quickly took a toll on his littlest master. He wished desperately to be closer when Yuugi fell but he’d become trapped in one of Pegasus’ monsters.

For once he left the field as a tribute, sleeping – well dreaming – until the next duel with his master.

 

The heavy swish of pendulum axes swinging precariously filled the air, his body ached and he was hunched over, breathing heavily. He’d just taken a devastating attack, likely from the pale haired man across from him. Even just looking at this man sent fear and pity through him. Mahaad didn’t understand why he felt those emotions but a thought soon struck him. 

He only had one option.

“There is one great spell that a magician can only cast once.” He didn’t know what this spell was but the words continued to spill from his lips. “I will give my life to fuse my ka and my ba, my spirit with my soul.” _Pharaoh, my soul is your eternal servant._ A million images flashed in his mind’s eye and Mahaad recognised some people. His master became Pharaoh in his mind. That boy Kaiba, ah so the Priest he had seen was named Set. And finally the Eye. Even worse images crossed his mind at the thought of that item, of all those items. A whole village dead because they needed this power, the former Pharaoh wracked with guilt; dying from it. 

He began to chant an ancient spell and at the close took one final step back. Into the path of a swinging axe.

There was momentary pain before he opened his eyes again and looked down at himself. These clothes were much more familiar.

So this was how it had happened.

 

The next time his master, no Pharaoh, called him it wasn’t even a duel. Faced with another Black Magician, all he had to do was draw Mahaad from his deck and he was there, ready.

The duel was dark and deadly and Mahaad was relieved when he was quickly summoned to the field. A direct attack to the cheating conjurer that was Pharaoh’s opponent and they were one step closer to victory. Of course it couldn’t be so easy and a turn later the conjurer had summoned his own Black Magician. 

It wasn’t someone that Mahaad recognised and he wondered if it was even a face he should recognise. The other Magician leered at him, a soft chuckle escaping, like he and his master had already won. How arrogant of the fool.

Mahaad soon saw that this was going to be a tougher duel than he first thought. With both of them on the field, their masters were forced to play a long string of spells and traps, in the end culminating in both Magicians finding their way back to the field. 

He knew that Pharaoh wasn’t sure what would happen next but he felt his faith. Mahaad glanced down at his master, a soft smile on his lips. Even after all this time, whether he remembered him or not, that trust was still there. The Pharaoh’s belief in him was still there.

But he soon found himself powerless and chained to wooden blocks. He looked worriedly over at Pharaoh, how could he protect him like this?

The answer soon came thanks to their enemy. Ectoplasmer.

One more hit and the Pharaoh would be dead, or at least without his legs, but Arkana had made the mistake of selecting his own Black Magician for sacrifice. That meant that Mahaad himself could protect him, more directly this time than that memory he’d seen.

He just hoped that it was enough.

 

His sleep was interrupted once again but this time the memories had nothing to do with himself and everything to do with the fated rivals. They were duelling again and somewhere something had reacted and was bestowing upon them this vision. 

Telling them that they were fated to fight again. That there was a reason that most of the Pharaoh’s duels were against his rival in some form or another. That this was 3000 years in the making.

The God Cards were long gone in this duel and Kaiba’s dragon made it to the field first, Mahaad soon following. He looked down at Kaiba and over at his own rival. 

Finally they would settle this. 

He hadn’t seen a memory beyond this and he knew that there could be no-one in existence that knew the outcome of this duel.

Not yet. 

Soon it would be decided once and for all and so long as he faced the outcome together with his Pharaoh, he knew they would win.


End file.
